2006 Diva Cup Awards: Best Actor

And the nominees are...

Matt Damon, The Departed

A brilliant performance that, for some reason or another, was never given any respect. Damon is transfixing as this dirty cop posing as a good cop and finally proved to me that he is a fantastic actor.

Key Scene: Raiding Costello

Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed

With The Aviator, DiCaprio proved (to me anyways) that he could act. With The Departed, DiCaprio proves why he is one of the most respected actors in his age group. This is one hell of a knockout performance.

Key Scene: The final showdown on the roof

Aaron Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking

Being the lead of an impressive cast is never easy, but Eckhart does it flawlessly and easily shows us why everyone falls for this tobacco lobbyist's line.

Key Scene: Speaking at his son's career day

Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson

I wrote about this performance before, but let me just remind you how awed I was by this stunning, haunting and altogether brilliant performance...from the star of The Notebook no less.

Key Scene: Being found in the bathroom by Dre

Edward Norton, The Painted Veil

Norton keeps on surprising us with unusual projects and interesting characters. His performance here as the quiet and shy doctor who turns cold and bitter once he finds out about his wife's affair is startling and another brilliant performance for him.

Key Scene: Telling his wife he knows about her affair

If Only There Were Six: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: hilarious, but also insightful- a rarity nowadays

Rest of the Top 10: Gael Garcia Bernal, The Science of Sleep: effectively keeps the surrealism grounded in reality...Patrick Wilson, Little Children: another fine performance ignored by critics- when will they learn...James McAvoy, The Last King of Scotland: there really is no way he should have been campaigning for supporting because he is the whole show...Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland: an effective scene stealer and scarily mad

BRONZE
Aaron Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking
SILVER
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
GOLD
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed